In May, Flex Real Estate took over asset management of Tuller Ridge Corporate Center, a multi-tenant flex building in Dublin, Ohio. The property is a 105K-square-foot flex industrial building with 22 tenants. We have made significant progress in improving the rent roll and the quality of the building through enhanced property management and leasing. Improving the properties we manage is our daily focus, and I am excited to share the early results. Additionally, I will share recent developments in the area surrounding the property that will help Flex Real Estate continue to succeed in leasing and managing the property.
Leasing & Credit of the Tenant
Our goal in managing the property is to attract tenants who will be invested in the space, pay rent on time, and have limited risk to cease to exist as a business. This property has a wide-ranging rent roll of tenants due to its functional use and location. The spaces themselves are around 50% office and 50% warehouse with roll-up doors in each suite. When we refer to “flex” as a property type, this is precisely what we are describing: the ability to accomodate industrial, retail, and office use tenants. At Tuller, we have examples of each of these tenant types in the rent roll. Our tenants choose this property for its location because of its proximity to decision-makers, customers, and their employees' satisfaction. This property is located in Dublin, OH, a western suburb of Columbus, OH. It has the large corporate employers Cardinal Health, Quantum Health, and the Wendy’s headquarters, the average household income is $197K, the average property value is $579K and it is also host to a well-known professional golf tournament, The Memorial. The people who live here are executives, decision makers, and wealthy families of Columbus who will either be locating their businesses in the area or consuming services and goods locally. This is a major reason why Dublin is a highly occupied real estate market with only 3% vacancy in its entire stock of flex and industrial buildings.
Bridge Park
When we took over management of the property, we had the opportunity to lease three vacancies: two 2,400-square-foot spaces and one 4,200-square-foot space. We have engaged Colliers out of Columbus a third-party brokerage firm to assist us with the leasing efforts on these vacant spaces. Since May, we have signed a tenant for one of the 2,400-square-foot spaces and a tenant for the 4,200-square-foot space. We are currently evaluating multiple proposals for the remaining 2,400-square-foot space which would bring the property to 100% occupancy. We are proud of the work we have done here because we have achieved what we set out to do in our business plan. Both signed leases are in line with our underwritten leasing assumptions for rate and tenant improvements (TI), and, more importantly, we leased the space to quality tenants who will be consistent payers.
New Tenants
The first tenant was Silent Aire. Silent Aire is an HVAC service provider specializing in Data Center HVAC services. In a previous newsletter, I went over what a data center is: it is really nothing more than a giant HVAC unit. Columbus has a booming Data Center development pipeline, with companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon investing billions of dollars in local data center projects. These companies are choosing Columbus for its access to power and water, its lack of natural disasters, and its inexpensive land. Silent Aire is also owned by Johnson Controls, a company with roughly 85,000 employees and $20B in annual revenue. This profile means they will pay rent and be looked at favorably by lenders for any future financing needs.
The group that occupies the 4,200-square-foot space is called Geo Technology Associates. Geo Technology Associates is an engineering services company with 27 locations across the Eastern United States. A big key to why we like this tenant is the strength of their financials that we reviewed during the due diligence process. We were able to review the company's income statement and balance sheet for three years. What this revealed was that the company is healthy and profitable, which is essential when making a five-year commitment to the tenant as a partner. Additionally, we used our credit scoring service, CreditSafe, to review their payment history, which showed they had a stellar corporate credit score.
Improving the quality of the rent roll is crucial for boosting net operating income and achieving a lower cap rate than with low-quality tenants. We are able to choose the tenants who take the space because of the high local market demand.
Tuller Ridge Corporate Center (with Bridge Park in the background)
Future development
The specific location of Tuller Ridge Corporate Center positions it to benefit from current and future development in Dublin, OH. Dublin has high built density for a suburban city, with a highly walkable historic downtown. Across the Scioto River from the historic downtown, the group Crawford Hoying has created a walkable mixed-use development called Bridge Park with 230K square feet of retail space, 600K square feet of office space, 1,022 residential units, and 295 hotel rooms. Tuller Ridge Corporate Center is a five-minute walk from new places to live, shop, eat, and entertain. This has driven up demand for this side of the river and will attract tenants focused on their employees’ experience who would benefit from proximity to Bridge Park. Tuller will undoubtedly benefit from the live, work, play aspect of Bridge Park because you can access all of these amenities at about 50% of the monthly cost you would pay for space at Bridge Park.
Even better, the work at Bridge Park is not done; several significant developments are coming to the area that will improve it and drive tenant demand. I have highlighted a few of these new developments below.
Bridge North
Developers: The project is a collaboration between Indus Hotels and Daimler Group.
Key features: Plans include a 150-room Hilton Tempo hotel (first in Ohio), 280 residential units, 75,000-square-feet of Class A office space, 60,000-square-feet of retail/dining space, and a 610+ space parking garage.
Design: The five-building complex will integrate green spaces and pedestrian pathways, with retail and restaurants at street level, residential units above, and dedicated buildings for hotel, offices, and parking.
Timeline: Construction will start in 2026 and be phased, with initial occupancy projected for 2028
Y Block Development
Developers: The project is a collaboration between Crawford Hoying and Cameron Mitchell.
Key Features: Plans include a 130-room Cameron Mitchell hotel, 26 condominiums, four “food and beverage concepts” including a signature Cameron Mitchell restaurant, an event venue with a 4,000-square-foot ballroom, a 90,000-square-foot office and retail building, and a 500-space parking garage.
Design: The two-building complex will consist of one building housing the hotel, condominiums, event space, and restaurants. The other building will be solely office with retail on the first floor.
Timeline: Construction expected to start in 2026.
H Block Development
Developer: Crawford Hoying
Key Features: Plans include a residential development with 42 three-story townhomes across ten buildings.
Design: New townhomes will be constructed adjacent to the 22 units completed in 2019.
Timeline: Final Development Plan Approved May 2025
J Block Development
Developer: Crawford Hoying
Key Features: Plans include a five-story 89-unit condo building, five-story 105-unit condo building, 534-space parking garage, and a 100,000-square-feet office building with 10,000-square-feet of restaurant use.
Design: The four-building complex will include green space, nature trails, and outdoor seating.
Timeline: Construction is already underway, with completion anticipated in late 2027.
Bridge Park Continued Development Sites
These new developments, along with our focused management of the property, will enable Flex Real Estate to curate a high-quality rent roll, thereby boosting the value of this project.
Reply to this email and let me know if there are any specific topics you would like to hear about next. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for the December Focus!
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